July 9, 2025 • 26 mins
In this unscripted debut, Jason and Melanie Winter dive into the realities of running a tech business as a married couple in a small town. From the beauty of client relationships to midnight server drama, this episode is part origin story, part love letter to small business — with AI riding shotgun.
🎧 Wired Together is produced by WinternetWeb Technologies, a family-run web design and tech studio based in Bracey, Virginia.
💻 Visit us at winternetweb.com to learn more about our work, browse recent projects, or get in touch.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason (00:01):
Oops, I hit the button.
Melanie (00:02):
All right, welcome to Wired Together.
This is a podcast withWinternet Web.
So your host today is JasonWinter and Melanie Winter,
owners of Winternet Web.
And as always, we have, or wewill always have, this is our
very first one, the AI.
(00:24):
So we're going to direct somequestioning to AI.
Jason (00:28):
Yeah, we figured...
It might be an interestingthing.
We're not trying to make itseem like a game show or
anything, but it just kind ofthrows a new element that we
could kind of talk about thetopics we're discussing, throw
something in there.
And one good thing is, yes, youcould try to pre-script a lot
of things or have pre-writtenquestions, but when you're
(00:51):
throwing something live at youthat you need to respond to, it
makes it so much more authentic.
Melanie (00:57):
So our purpose is we are a small business.
We are a tech business in themiddle of a very small rural
community.
So we are kind of discuss andtalk about this interesting
dichotomy of small and ruralgoing together with big tech.
Jason (01:19):
Right.
I mean, I guess it's not amisnomer, but maybe a myth even.
that when you're in a smallarea that you don't have the
resources of large areas.
And, I mean, that may be so incertain aspects.
But when it comes totechnology, and we've seen
certainly how that landscape haschanged over the past 20 years.
Melanie (01:44):
Tech's in your
Jason (01:45):
pocket.
Yeah, tech is in your pocket.
And not only do we have accessto it, but...
It's pretty much required ofus.
I mean, you used to go onvacation.
No one knew anything, even ifthey had to find you.
I mean, it was difficult, butnow you're inundated with texts
and stuff from work.
I mean, the whole thing, I'mleaving, boss, bye, that's kind
(02:08):
of gone by.
It's not the same.
Now they're going to be able tofind you.
Hey, I know you're on vacation,but can you do this real quick?
Yeah.
Melanie (02:22):
All right.
So what we're going to do isdiscuss some moments of our
daily life.
Maybe sometimes start with astory, that kind of thing.
And then, you know, how thatapplies to us and maybe some
tips of the trade of, you know,building small businesses.
And so small business is theheart of America.
(02:45):
And so it's small business isnot...
to be undersung.
It is actually, should besinging loudly.
So we were trying to put thatsong out there.
Jason (02:58):
All right, so.
Do we have a moment we want toshare?
We
Melanie (03:06):
talked about discussing just our day-to-day.
So we had a wonderful customercome in, and she is an owner and
operator of a small business inour local area.
We absolutely love her, andthat is the coolest thing that
we get to do on a daily basis,and that is our bread and butter
(03:29):
of what we do is we lovecustomers.
our small business owners andour community members that come
by and whatever their need is,we can discuss very, you know,
put something together veryquickly and help them with, you
know, hey, I'm stuck.
This is where I need some ideasand some consulting.
(03:51):
So we can't not do thissometimes because that is the
challenge.
the luxury we get is is beingstarting those relationships and
building them with people
Jason (04:03):
yeah i mean definitely in small business gets it's very
misunderstood unless you haveone i mean it you end up taking
on pretty much everything butyou know, all the same, you
know, tax laws, you know, thesame problems.
And, you know, there's always aissue of what, when, you know,
(04:25):
man, I can get this cheaper frombig box, whatever organization
down the road and all, butyou're missing a lot.
And I think one thing we'vereally appreciate with small
business centers is therelationships of it and how you
can really, you know, connectwith them and what you're able
to really accomplish, um, If theTitanic were smaller, it could
(04:50):
have navigated away from theiceberg.
But small businesses oftentimescan do a lot of creative big
things.
And that's what our country wasbuilt off of.
Melanie (05:09):
So this is just one of the reasons that are wise, I
guess.
Why do we do what we do?
you know, the passion forsomething more tech, something a
little more big andinteresting, learning all of the
new pieces, learning all of thethings thrown at us.
(05:32):
AI is a big one.
And so we can always let AIspeak for himself, itself.
Jason (05:43):
Himself, herself, itself.
Yeah.
So we're gonna bring AI in, inthis part of the segment, or?
Sure.
What do you think?
Okay, so.
Melanie (05:53):
What does AI think about small business and
relationships?
Jason (05:57):
All right, give me one second.
All right, so.
He said, that's great.
(06:17):
Here's a thoughtful questionyou could ask on your show to
spark a meaningful andinsightful conversation.
What's one thing about runninga small business that no one
prepared you for, but you wishthey had?
Melanie (06:32):
Taxes.
Jason (06:34):
I know.
That was the first thing thatcame to my mind.
It's like, so I buy this, I paytax.
I have it.
It sits here.
I still pay tax.
And I know, you know.
Anyway, and I...
Not down on that hill today,not going down that path.
You
Melanie (06:48):
buy it, I pay tax.
You don't buy it, I still pay
Jason (06:51):
tax.
Right, exactly.
Let me think about this.
I mean, I've gotten a lot ofgood advice, and mainly from
other small business owners,because again, it's a unique
breed.
And largely because, in a lotof organizations, we've been to
conferences, and when we firststarted doing web design, we did
it all in code.
(07:11):
And it was foreign to most ofthe people out there because,
you know, they're like, so whatdepartment are you with?
What do you do?
It's like, what do you meanwhat I do?
I make websites.
And I'm like, yeah, but are yousales?
Are you, you know, are yousupport?
And I guess in my ignorance, Iwas like, aren't...
(07:32):
Yes, yes, yes.
I thought everyone was allparts of it, you know.
Of course, you know, you usedthe term freelancer, you know,
and that's kind of like how wegot into the industry.
So you...
you don't always know how toanswer those questions and you
realize you're actually part ofeverything when you're in a
small business.
So being that is a uniquebreed, I've gotten some good
(07:56):
advice from people.
Namely one person said, becauseyes, we've been doing this for
pretty much almost 18 years as abusiness longer than that in
practice.
That's another story, but we'vegone full time about, to
two-and-a-half years ago.
And going full-time is a very,very scary transition that many
(08:20):
people we've talked to, they canrelate to.
And one bit of advice wasobviously not to undersell
yourself.
That you are providing aservice, and people want to pay
for good service.
And service has always beenimportant to us, and not
necessarily for financialreasons, but just in...
That's important, too, goingback to taxes.
(08:42):
They
Melanie (08:44):
still want
Jason (08:45):
their taxes.
Yeah, you still need to paypeople.
I mean, mama needs shoes.
No, I'm kidding.
Mama hasn't had a good new pairof shoes in a while.
But anyway, service isimportant because we're dealing
with people.
I realize in all industriespeople are dealing with people.
But especially with technology,you're trying to create
something that connects withother people.
(09:07):
And that is kind of what isreally cool about it.
Also with that said, andanother surprise I had, well
anyway, let me get to the bit ofadvice first.
The bit of advice was always behappy to see your client.
You don't want to have a clientthat keeps contacting you for
(09:27):
something and maybe not feellike you're being fairly
compensated because then you maydevelop resentment.
So the purpose of that was makesure that what you're doing,
that you are serving people andthat you feel like you're being
compensated fairly for itbecause that business owner
(09:50):
would expect that relationshipnot to become something where
now you have a grudge orsomething.
And that's just not how it allshould go.
I guess something else I foundsurprising too...
When I grew up with computersand things, we didn't always
(10:12):
have the latest and greatest.
But I also, when I startedinteracting with computers and
when the World Wide Web startedcoming about, I wanted to share
it with my great-grandparents,whom I was very close with, who
hardly had a television.
(10:32):
So for them to understand whatI was talking about was foreign.
But fast forward to now, a lotof our clients with the computer
repair and unfortunatecircumstances of people being
hacked and taken advantage of,this is an older population than
(10:55):
when I first got into it everthought would be using
computers.
Don't mean anything by that,but my great-grandparents, of
course, they've passed for sometime, so to think of someone in
their age group using computerswas foreign.
But the landscape has changed.
Today, that is theirconnectivity to seeing the
pictures of their grandkids orconnect with their children.
Melanie (11:19):
Sometimes paying bills.
Jason (11:21):
Yeah.
You've got to be online.
You have to, like a lot of thehealth things, you have to do
all of that.
And everything is now onlinefor them.
And so when they contact me andthey say, and I know it's just
a computer, it's not important.
I'm like, but this is actuallyyour access to the world outside
(11:46):
of your house.
So this is important.
Right.
To them, you might think, oh,this is trivial.
It's a computer.
Or they're trying to justifywhy it's not important.
But I do see how important thatreally is.
I mean, just imagine if thatwas your...
I mean, your, your, yeah, yourlifeline.
(12:08):
Exactly.
To your family.
Exactly.
So I think we kind of got offtopic on that.
And, uh, well, you'll get usedto that.
But anyway, um, So the originalquestion was, what was one
thing running a small businessthat no one prepared you for,
but you wish you had?
So
Melanie (12:26):
the population you were not prepared for.
Exactly.
Like who exactly was youraudience, I guess, was a little
change.
Jason (12:33):
That's why I love you.
Cleaning up what I do.
Yeah, let's clean it up.
Let's clean
Melanie (12:36):
up.
I got a summary.
Jason (12:37):
You parenthetically justified where I went.
Melanie (12:41):
And so also, you know, make sure that you're happy to
see people.
I always, you know...
One of the things I learnedvery early is smile before you
answer the phone.
You don't know who's on theother end of that phone.
But if you smile first, theyhear the smile.
And so always be happy to seethe people that you are about to
(13:04):
see.
Really, this is all business.
But, you know, not just smallbusiness.
But really in small business, Imean, you don't have to deal
with small business.
But boy, does it make adifference when dealing with
small business has you walk awaygoing...
I'm so glad I did that.
Jason (13:22):
Yeah.
I mean, you and I are suckersfor good service.
We are.
We've been in places beforewhere I spent a lot more money
than I planned to.
But the level of service andthe trust I had in the product
beforehand, I mean, I waswilling to spend it because, you
know, it was just such a greatexperience.
(13:43):
Yes.
And connecting with people.
The person makes thedifference.
The connections make thedifference.
Definitely.
So, yeah.
Melanie (13:48):
The people make
Jason (13:49):
the difference.
Right.
So in a broader landscape ofthe importance of service and
relationships, I think that kindof hits on the uniqueness of
small business.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Do we have any other questionsor anything that...
Or we could throw in AI for afollow-up question.
(14:10):
Yeah, let's throw in AI.
Let's see what you got to say,AI.
AI is new to us for thisepisode.
So are we.
So it's kind of like our thirdchair.
Yeah.
Let's see.
Do we want to put it in acertain direction or just...
I'm going to let it know whatwe're talking about.
(14:30):
One plan we have while I'mdoing this, maybe I can talk
about, is for these podcasts,we're hoping that after the
podcast, we can transcribe whatwe've talked about into a
script.
So then AI can then understandwhat was talked about and
everything.
So...
We're pioneering an idea herewhere then the AI, learning what
(14:56):
we've talked about, what wemaybe went into but didn't go in
much depth over, it can thenjump in with stuff and maybe
something out of left field tomake us just really make the
conversation authentic.
All right, so...
(15:20):
All right.
We have...
How have the relationshipsyou've built, whether with
clients, vendors, or evencompetitors, shaped the way you
(15:42):
do business today?
I need to think about that.
Melanie (15:52):
The need to continue to do it is one thing.
Before we started full-time, itwas a which direction do we go?
We had so many clients that youcouldn't walk away.
And it was taking more of thetime of being, instead of being
(16:15):
small freelancing, it became alittle more involved in the the
more involved it became actuallythe more we wanted it to be.
So our building of thoserelationships was so much more
important than I guess the otherindustries that we were in.
(16:36):
So then it was deciding thosepeople are our most important
reason.
Our community is important andso if we can really dive into
that.
And, you know, a little bit,not just a little bit, a lot.
Our family's important.
And so between, and so we willactually get more into this with
(16:59):
different episodes, but smallbusiness and running a family at
the exact same time with theway that we operate now, we are
able to build our ownscheduling.
And so, and we are able toactually work together as we are
husband and wife, of course.
So that's, that gives us uhflexibility with family which
(17:22):
was also uh as far asrelationships our relationships
right became very important andthen the client relationships to
the point where we wouldn'thave done it without it
Jason (17:33):
sure and i guess another tidbit that may come up later um
We've always talked about thebusiness, of course,
WinternetWeb, as WinternetWebbaby.
It's our little baby.
It's our little baby, I know.
Melanie (17:48):
Sometimes it cries.
Jason (17:49):
See, our baby is what can drive now.
Our
Melanie (17:54):
baby is 17.
Yeah,
Jason (17:55):
our baby can drive and watch movies that are maybe not
something you'd want your babyto see.
But we always saw it as a babybecause...
Just like in a family whereeveryone has needs, sometimes
the family needs to sacrificefor the needs of the business
(18:17):
and the time that needs to gointo the business for the sake
of the family.
Just
Melanie (18:22):
as sometimes the business has to sacrifice for
the sake of the family.
Exactly.
It's like trying to navigate.
You're trying to give...
We have two children, so tryingto give both children 100% of
your time is not possible.
So you navigate around that.
Jason (18:38):
Exactly.
Melanie (18:38):
Who's on fire first?
Jason (18:41):
Sure.
Melanie (18:42):
So we have three children because sometimes it is
Winter net Web that's the onethat has to be...
Okay, this one needs to be fedbefore everybody else gets
Jason (18:51):
fed.
Exactly.
But I guess part of that isjust understanding that that's
going to happen and then beingable to bend because it's like,
yep, well...
We need to put the time intothat, too, because it's all part
of the family ecosystem.
And when you're in a smallbusiness, you're dealing with
families.
And that's the other thing,too.
We talk about how often it'simportant people have these
(19:14):
campaigns like Shop Localbecause that money goes to these
people that are working hardfor their families and
everything.
But, I mean, we've hadsituations.
I think we were at a steakhouseabout three years ago, maybe
two years ago, where...
I got a phone call, somethingwent wrong.
And I mean, something likereally went wrong.
That wasn't necessarily myfault, but we were migrating
(19:37):
servers and something was leftout of the migration.
So pretty much Melanie and thekids had to sit there and I'm
trying to text her updates whenI'm in the parking lot.
She packs up my food for me solovingly.
drives while I'm still on thephone you know on chat by
texting people trying to callpeople at the same time trying
(19:59):
to fix the issue by 2.30 in themorning I think we were good to
go but the baby cried I justthought I'd have to give it a
bottle for 10 minutes but nopeI'm going to have to hold this
thing all night long so you justdon't know what you're going to
expect but again you know itwasn't like oh my gosh you know
Melanie's like hey because we'vealready had this understanding
it's like It said, we're not atweb, baby.
(20:20):
She said, all right, baby, youdo your thing.
I got this.
And that's also one good thingabout working together is we can
read each other.
We work together so we know ifsomeone has to go down that
rabbit hole and do something andput a lot of time into it.
Melanie (20:34):
Someone, usually you.
Jason (20:35):
Yes, okay, yeah.
I don't know
Melanie (20:37):
the server situation.
I'm the design and consulting.
Jason (20:41):
Right, so, I mean...
But you also trust, okay, well,this is necessary.
He'll explain later orwhatever.
And in the same vein, sometimesI'm just deer in headlights.
And you're like, okay, well,let's do this.
Or we need to get you into theplace of switching hats from
this to this.
Or
Melanie (21:01):
sometimes it's just, oh, are we recording now?
We don't have a script.
Yes, we're recording now.
Let's do this.
Jason (21:07):
Yeah, and that's kind of how this whole thing started.
Today.
It did today.
And we spent...
Part of the day yesterday, justlike, how do we talk about
this?
Because it's important for usto have this podcast to, one,
talk about the unique part ofsmall business and husband and
(21:28):
wife team.
This is not uncommon, but it'salso not very common.
And we get asked all the time,how do you all work together?
And it's like, well...
It does take work, but it'salso been something we've kind
of trained ourselves into overtime.
And I mean, I'm sure in thisand future episodes, we'll talk
about some of our bad momentsand it's going to be for, you
(21:52):
know, anybody.
Melanie (21:55):
It's not a perfect system, but it is a good system.
Jason (21:58):
Yeah, definitely.
So let's take a look down thelist there, babe, and see if
there was something else that...
random topic we wanted to getinto we're at about 22 minutes
now and we're hoping to makethese about 30.
okay
Melanie (22:15):
well we are gonna um explore different parts of our
um different episodes are gonnago into of course small town
life
Jason (22:23):
oh yeah different topics um
Melanie (22:25):
and we are gonna get into um as far as maybe AI in
the workplace, um, which is avery interesting, very new
topic,
Jason (22:36):
new topic.
Yeah.
And,
Melanie (22:38):
um, you know, maybe even concerns about technology
taking over.
Um, and you know, how do wework with politics in the
workplace?
How do we, or not workplace somuch as small business?
Where, where does that belong?
Jason (22:53):
Right.
Melanie (22:54):
You know, um, And, again, more little stories of us
together, us with raisingchildren, raising animals,
raising the bar,raising Winternet Web as
the Winternet Web baby.
He's so close.
He's almost there.
Jason (23:13):
Almost there.
Melanie (23:13):
And we did have a little piece.
This podcast won't solve yourproblems.
We haven't solved ours, but wehopefully will.
It will hopefully make you feelless alone while you try.
Jason (23:26):
That sounds good.
Sounds like a good set ofthings, too.
And I know no one is hearingthis live because, of course,
we're putting it in the podcastform.
Editing's awesome.
Yeah, editing is awesome.
No, but I mean...
The thing, the reason why wewanted to do the podcast and not
necessarily do it live, one,we're, of course, small business
(23:49):
lifestyle.
I think that was alreadyanswered earlier.
But...
Being able to put somethingtogether like this and put it
out, a lot of people likelistening to this.
I mean, you could be driving inyour car right now listening to
it and just having that passiveactivity of listening to
something while you have idletime.
That's really how podcasts havebecome strong as a technology.
(24:13):
But, yeah, so this is our idea.
Again, we were talking about...
it being wired together.
And I think hopefully everyonepicks up on the play on words
that are at play there.
A lot of wires in thisbusiness, from computer repair.
(24:35):
Of course, web design is a bigthing we'll talk about.
But since we've gone full time.
Wired and
Melanie (24:42):
unwired.
Jason (24:42):
Wired and unwired.
And wired from coffee.
So it's many different layersthere.
Melanie (24:47):
Wired with coffee is
Jason (24:48):
how we run.
Then I could get into Java andJavaScript and all those bad
jokes.
But we're thankful that we'reable to do this.
And going full time has allowedus to be able to do the
(25:09):
computer repair and so forthhaving a storefront because
there's only so much you can doout of your home without having
a more of a public facing placethere are people there yeah
there are people there they areand it's
Melanie (25:24):
difficult to be out of the home
Jason (25:25):
sometimes it really is and you don't know what you're
going to face you don't knowwhat distraction is going to be
there because you know whenyou're working home and there
are a lot of people that do andthey do really well but um I
mean, even look at the industryof writers.
I mean, a writer isn't going torent a place to write.
They're going to write fromhome.
And they're often seen as, oh,well, you work for yourself.
(25:47):
You're at home.
You're always available for meto bug.
You're not doing anything.
You come on and do this for meor whatever.
So priorities and things getconstrued.
But yeah.
So we look forward to doingthis again shortly.
And for our...
random inaugural podcast hereyou go this is us certainly in
(26:08):
the raw we really just you knowhalf hour ago said let's hit
record and see what happens soyou are definitely getting the
authentic jason and melanie butover the course of this i hope
you get to know us a little moreand we would love to you know
make this something that is partof your day so he's signing off
(26:31):
from winter net web this wasjason winter
Melanie (26:33):
melanie winter
Jason (26:34):
Have a wonderful day.
Oops, I hit the button.
Melanie (00:02):
All right, welcome to Wired Together.
This is a podcast withWinternet Web.
So your host today is JasonWinter and Melanie Winter,
owners of Winternet Web.
And as always, we have, or wewill always have, this is our
very first one, the AI.
(00:24):
So we're going to direct somequestioning to AI.
Jason (00:28):
Yeah, we figured...
It might be an interestingthing.
We're not trying to make itseem like a game show or
anything, but it just kind ofthrows a new element that we
could kind of talk about thetopics we're discussing, throw
something in there.
And one good thing is, yes, youcould try to pre-script a lot
of things or have pre-writtenquestions, but when you're
(00:51):
throwing something live at youthat you need to respond to, it
makes it so much more authentic.
Melanie (00:57):
So our purpose is we are a small business.
We are a tech business in themiddle of a very small rural
community.
So we are kind of discuss andtalk about this interesting
dichotomy of small and ruralgoing together with big tech.
Jason (01:19):
Right.
I mean, I guess it's not amisnomer, but maybe a myth even.
that when you're in a smallarea that you don't have the
resources of large areas.
And, I mean, that may be so incertain aspects.
But when it comes totechnology, and we've seen
certainly how that landscape haschanged over the past 20 years.
Melanie (01:44):
Tech's in your
Jason (01:45):
pocket.
Yeah, tech is in your pocket.
And not only do we have accessto it, but...
It's pretty much required ofus.
I mean, you used to go onvacation.
No one knew anything, even ifthey had to find you.
I mean, it was difficult, butnow you're inundated with texts
and stuff from work.
I mean, the whole thing, I'mleaving, boss, bye, that's kind
(02:08):
of gone by.
It's not the same.
Now they're going to be able tofind you.
Hey, I know you're on vacation,but can you do this real quick?
Yeah.
Melanie (02:22):
All right.
So what we're going to do isdiscuss some moments of our
daily life.
Maybe sometimes start with astory, that kind of thing.
And then, you know, how thatapplies to us and maybe some
tips of the trade of, you know,building small businesses.
And so small business is theheart of America.
(02:45):
And so it's small business isnot...
to be undersung.
It is actually, should besinging loudly.
So we were trying to put thatsong out there.
Jason (02:58):
All right, so.
Do we have a moment we want toshare?
We
Melanie (03:06):
talked about discussing just our day-to-day.
So we had a wonderful customercome in, and she is an owner and
operator of a small business inour local area.
We absolutely love her, andthat is the coolest thing that
we get to do on a daily basis,and that is our bread and butter
(03:29):
of what we do is we lovecustomers.
our small business owners andour community members that come
by and whatever their need is,we can discuss very, you know,
put something together veryquickly and help them with, you
know, hey, I'm stuck.
This is where I need some ideasand some consulting.
(03:51):
So we can't not do thissometimes because that is the
challenge.
the luxury we get is is beingstarting those relationships and
building them with people
Jason (04:03):
yeah i mean definitely in small business gets it's very
misunderstood unless you haveone i mean it you end up taking
on pretty much everything butyou know, all the same, you
know, tax laws, you know, thesame problems.
And, you know, there's always aissue of what, when, you know,
(04:25):
man, I can get this cheaper frombig box, whatever organization
down the road and all, butyou're missing a lot.
And I think one thing we'vereally appreciate with small
business centers is therelationships of it and how you
can really, you know, connectwith them and what you're able
to really accomplish, um, If theTitanic were smaller, it could
(04:50):
have navigated away from theiceberg.
But small businesses oftentimescan do a lot of creative big
things.
And that's what our country wasbuilt off of.
Melanie (05:09):
So this is just one of the reasons that are wise, I
guess.
Why do we do what we do?
you know, the passion forsomething more tech, something a
little more big andinteresting, learning all of the
new pieces, learning all of thethings thrown at us.
(05:32):
AI is a big one.
And so we can always let AIspeak for himself, itself.
Jason (05:43):
Himself, herself, itself.
Yeah.
So we're gonna bring AI in, inthis part of the segment, or?
Sure.
What do you think?
Okay, so.
Melanie (05:53):
What does AI think about small business and
relationships?
Jason (05:57):
All right, give me one second.
All right, so.
He said, that's great.
(06:17):
Here's a thoughtful questionyou could ask on your show to
spark a meaningful andinsightful conversation.
What's one thing about runninga small business that no one
prepared you for, but you wishthey had?
Melanie (06:32):
Taxes.
Jason (06:34):
I know.
That was the first thing thatcame to my mind.
It's like, so I buy this, I paytax.
I have it.
It sits here.
I still pay tax.
And I know, you know.
Anyway, and I...
Not down on that hill today,not going down that path.
You
Melanie (06:48):
buy it, I pay tax.
You don't buy it, I still pay
Jason (06:51):
tax.
Right, exactly.
Let me think about this.
I mean, I've gotten a lot ofgood advice, and mainly from
other small business owners,because again, it's a unique
breed.
And largely because, in a lotof organizations, we've been to
conferences, and when we firststarted doing web design, we did
it all in code.
(07:11):
And it was foreign to most ofthe people out there because,
you know, they're like, so whatdepartment are you with?
What do you do?
It's like, what do you meanwhat I do?
I make websites.
And I'm like, yeah, but are yousales?
Are you, you know, are yousupport?
And I guess in my ignorance, Iwas like, aren't...
(07:32):
Yes, yes, yes.
I thought everyone was allparts of it, you know.
Of course, you know, you usedthe term freelancer, you know,
and that's kind of like how wegot into the industry.
So you...
you don't always know how toanswer those questions and you
realize you're actually part ofeverything when you're in a
small business.
So being that is a uniquebreed, I've gotten some good
(07:56):
advice from people.
Namely one person said, becauseyes, we've been doing this for
pretty much almost 18 years as abusiness longer than that in
practice.
That's another story, but we'vegone full time about, to
two-and-a-half years ago.
And going full-time is a very,very scary transition that many
(08:20):
people we've talked to, they canrelate to.
And one bit of advice wasobviously not to undersell
yourself.
That you are providing aservice, and people want to pay
for good service.
And service has always beenimportant to us, and not
necessarily for financialreasons, but just in...
That's important, too, goingback to taxes.
(08:42):
They
Melanie (08:44):
still want
Jason (08:45):
their taxes.
Yeah, you still need to paypeople.
I mean, mama needs shoes.
No, I'm kidding.
Mama hasn't had a good new pairof shoes in a while.
But anyway, service isimportant because we're dealing
with people.
I realize in all industriespeople are dealing with people.
But especially with technology,you're trying to create
something that connects withother people.
(09:07):
And that is kind of what isreally cool about it.
Also with that said, andanother surprise I had, well
anyway, let me get to the bit ofadvice first.
The bit of advice was always behappy to see your client.
You don't want to have a clientthat keeps contacting you for
(09:27):
something and maybe not feellike you're being fairly
compensated because then you maydevelop resentment.
So the purpose of that was makesure that what you're doing,
that you are serving people andthat you feel like you're being
compensated fairly for itbecause that business owner
(09:50):
would expect that relationshipnot to become something where
now you have a grudge orsomething.
And that's just not how it allshould go.
I guess something else I foundsurprising too...
When I grew up with computersand things, we didn't always
(10:12):
have the latest and greatest.
But I also, when I startedinteracting with computers and
when the World Wide Web startedcoming about, I wanted to share
it with my great-grandparents,whom I was very close with, who
hardly had a television.
(10:32):
So for them to understand whatI was talking about was foreign.
But fast forward to now, a lotof our clients with the computer
repair and unfortunatecircumstances of people being
hacked and taken advantage of,this is an older population than
(10:55):
when I first got into it everthought would be using
computers.
Don't mean anything by that,but my great-grandparents, of
course, they've passed for sometime, so to think of someone in
their age group using computerswas foreign.
But the landscape has changed.
Today, that is theirconnectivity to seeing the
pictures of their grandkids orconnect with their children.
Melanie (11:19):
Sometimes paying bills.
Jason (11:21):
Yeah.
You've got to be online.
You have to, like a lot of thehealth things, you have to do
all of that.
And everything is now onlinefor them.
And so when they contact me andthey say, and I know it's just
a computer, it's not important.
I'm like, but this is actuallyyour access to the world outside
(11:46):
of your house.
So this is important.
Right.
To them, you might think, oh,this is trivial.
It's a computer.
Or they're trying to justifywhy it's not important.
But I do see how important thatreally is.
I mean, just imagine if thatwas your...
I mean, your, your, yeah, yourlifeline.
(12:08):
Exactly.
To your family.
Exactly.
So I think we kind of got offtopic on that.
And, uh, well, you'll get usedto that.
But anyway, um, So the originalquestion was, what was one
thing running a small businessthat no one prepared you for,
but you wish you had?
So
Melanie (12:26):
the population you were not prepared for.
Exactly.
Like who exactly was youraudience, I guess, was a little
change.
Jason (12:33):
That's why I love you.
Cleaning up what I do.
Yeah, let's clean it up.
Let's clean
Melanie (12:36):
up.
I got a summary.
Jason (12:37):
You parenthetically justified where I went.
Melanie (12:41):
And so also, you know, make sure that you're happy to
see people.
I always, you know...
One of the things I learnedvery early is smile before you
answer the phone.
You don't know who's on theother end of that phone.
But if you smile first, theyhear the smile.
And so always be happy to seethe people that you are about to
(13:04):
see.
Really, this is all business.
But, you know, not just smallbusiness.
But really in small business, Imean, you don't have to deal
with small business.
But boy, does it make adifference when dealing with
small business has you walk awaygoing...
I'm so glad I did that.
Jason (13:22):
Yeah.
I mean, you and I are suckersfor good service.
We are.
We've been in places beforewhere I spent a lot more money
than I planned to.
But the level of service andthe trust I had in the product
beforehand, I mean, I waswilling to spend it because, you
know, it was just such a greatexperience.
(13:43):
Yes.
And connecting with people.
The person makes thedifference.
The connections make thedifference.
Definitely.
So, yeah.
Melanie (13:48):
The people make
Jason (13:49):
the difference.
Right.
So in a broader landscape ofthe importance of service and
relationships, I think that kindof hits on the uniqueness of
small business.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Do we have any other questionsor anything that...
Or we could throw in AI for afollow-up question.
(14:10):
Yeah, let's throw in AI.
Let's see what you got to say,AI.
AI is new to us for thisepisode.
So are we.
So it's kind of like our thirdchair.
Yeah.
Let's see.
Do we want to put it in acertain direction or just...
I'm going to let it know whatwe're talking about.
(14:30):
One plan we have while I'mdoing this, maybe I can talk
about, is for these podcasts,we're hoping that after the
podcast, we can transcribe whatwe've talked about into a
script.
So then AI can then understandwhat was talked about and
everything.
So...
We're pioneering an idea herewhere then the AI, learning what
(14:56):
we've talked about, what wemaybe went into but didn't go in
much depth over, it can thenjump in with stuff and maybe
something out of left field tomake us just really make the
conversation authentic.
All right, so...
(15:20):
All right.
We have...
How have the relationshipsyou've built, whether with
clients, vendors, or evencompetitors, shaped the way you
(15:42):
do business today?
I need to think about that.
Melanie (15:52):
The need to continue to do it is one thing.
Before we started full-time, itwas a which direction do we go?
We had so many clients that youcouldn't walk away.
And it was taking more of thetime of being, instead of being
(16:15):
small freelancing, it became alittle more involved in the the
more involved it became actuallythe more we wanted it to be.
So our building of thoserelationships was so much more
important than I guess the otherindustries that we were in.
(16:36):
So then it was deciding thosepeople are our most important
reason.
Our community is important andso if we can really dive into
that.
And, you know, a little bit,not just a little bit, a lot.
Our family's important.
And so between, and so we willactually get more into this with
(16:59):
different episodes, but smallbusiness and running a family at
the exact same time with theway that we operate now, we are
able to build our ownscheduling.
And so, and we are able toactually work together as we are
husband and wife, of course.
So that's, that gives us uhflexibility with family which
(17:22):
was also uh as far asrelationships our relationships
right became very important andthen the client relationships to
the point where we wouldn'thave done it without it
Jason (17:33):
sure and i guess another tidbit that may come up later um
We've always talked about thebusiness, of course,
WinternetWeb, as WinternetWebbaby.
It's our little baby.
It's our little baby, I know.
Melanie (17:48):
Sometimes it cries.
Jason (17:49):
See, our baby is what can drive now.
Our
Melanie (17:54):
baby is 17.
Yeah,
Jason (17:55):
our baby can drive and watch movies that are maybe not
something you'd want your babyto see.
But we always saw it as a babybecause...
Just like in a family whereeveryone has needs, sometimes
the family needs to sacrificefor the needs of the business
(18:17):
and the time that needs to gointo the business for the sake
of the family.
Just
Melanie (18:22):
as sometimes the business has to sacrifice for
the sake of the family.
Exactly.
It's like trying to navigate.
You're trying to give...
We have two children, so tryingto give both children 100% of
your time is not possible.
So you navigate around that.
Jason (18:38):
Exactly.
Melanie (18:38):
Who's on fire first?
Jason (18:41):
Sure.
Melanie (18:42):
So we have three children because sometimes it is
Winter net Web that's the onethat has to be...
Okay, this one needs to be fedbefore everybody else gets
Jason (18:51):
fed.
Exactly.
But I guess part of that isjust understanding that that's
going to happen and then beingable to bend because it's like,
yep, well...
We need to put the time intothat, too, because it's all part
of the family ecosystem.
And when you're in a smallbusiness, you're dealing with
families.
And that's the other thing,too.
We talk about how often it'simportant people have these
(19:14):
campaigns like Shop Localbecause that money goes to these
people that are working hardfor their families and
everything.
But, I mean, we've hadsituations.
I think we were at a steakhouseabout three years ago, maybe
two years ago, where...
I got a phone call, somethingwent wrong.
And I mean, something likereally went wrong.
That wasn't necessarily myfault, but we were migrating
(19:37):
servers and something was leftout of the migration.
So pretty much Melanie and thekids had to sit there and I'm
trying to text her updates whenI'm in the parking lot.
She packs up my food for me solovingly.
drives while I'm still on thephone you know on chat by
texting people trying to callpeople at the same time trying
(19:59):
to fix the issue by 2.30 in themorning I think we were good to
go but the baby cried I justthought I'd have to give it a
bottle for 10 minutes but nopeI'm going to have to hold this
thing all night long so you justdon't know what you're going to
expect but again you know itwasn't like oh my gosh you know
Melanie's like hey because we'vealready had this understanding
it's like It said, we're not atweb, baby.
(20:20):
She said, all right, baby, youdo your thing.
I got this.
And that's also one good thingabout working together is we can
read each other.
We work together so we know ifsomeone has to go down that
rabbit hole and do something andput a lot of time into it.
Melanie (20:34):
Someone, usually you.
Jason (20:35):
Yes, okay, yeah.
I don't know
Melanie (20:37):
the server situation.
I'm the design and consulting.
Jason (20:41):
Right, so, I mean...
But you also trust, okay, well,this is necessary.
He'll explain later orwhatever.
And in the same vein, sometimesI'm just deer in headlights.
And you're like, okay, well,let's do this.
Or we need to get you into theplace of switching hats from
this to this.
Or
Melanie (21:01):
sometimes it's just, oh, are we recording now?
We don't have a script.
Yes, we're recording now.
Let's do this.
Jason (21:07):
Yeah, and that's kind of how this whole thing started.
Today.
It did today.
And we spent...
Part of the day yesterday, justlike, how do we talk about
this?
Because it's important for usto have this podcast to, one,
talk about the unique part ofsmall business and husband and
(21:28):
wife team.
This is not uncommon, but it'salso not very common.
And we get asked all the time,how do you all work together?
And it's like, well...
It does take work, but it'salso been something we've kind
of trained ourselves into overtime.
And I mean, I'm sure in thisand future episodes, we'll talk
about some of our bad momentsand it's going to be for, you
(21:52):
know, anybody.
Melanie (21:55):
It's not a perfect system, but it is a good system.
Jason (21:58):
Yeah, definitely.
So let's take a look down thelist there, babe, and see if
there was something else that...
random topic we wanted to getinto we're at about 22 minutes
now and we're hoping to makethese about 30.
okay
Melanie (22:15):
well we are gonna um explore different parts of our
um different episodes are gonnago into of course small town
life
Jason (22:23):
oh yeah different topics um
Melanie (22:25):
and we are gonna get into um as far as maybe AI in
the workplace, um, which is avery interesting, very new
topic,
Jason (22:36):
new topic.
Yeah.
And,
Melanie (22:38):
um, you know, maybe even concerns about technology
taking over.
Um, and you know, how do wework with politics in the
workplace?
How do we, or not workplace somuch as small business?
Where, where does that belong?
Jason (22:53):
Right.
Melanie (22:54):
You know, um, And, again, more little stories of us
together, us with raisingchildren, raising animals,
raising the bar,raising Winternet Web as
the Winternet Web baby.
He's so close.
He's almost there.
Jason (23:13):
Almost there.
Melanie (23:13):
And we did have a little piece.
This podcast won't solve yourproblems.
We haven't solved ours, but wehopefully will.
It will hopefully make you feelless alone while you try.
Jason (23:26):
That sounds good.
Sounds like a good set ofthings, too.
And I know no one is hearingthis live because, of course,
we're putting it in the podcastform.
Editing's awesome.
Yeah, editing is awesome.
No, but I mean...
The thing, the reason why wewanted to do the podcast and not
necessarily do it live, one,we're, of course, small business
(23:49):
lifestyle.
I think that was alreadyanswered earlier.
But...
Being able to put somethingtogether like this and put it
out, a lot of people likelistening to this.
I mean, you could be driving inyour car right now listening to
it and just having that passiveactivity of listening to
something while you have idletime.
That's really how podcasts havebecome strong as a technology.
(24:13):
But, yeah, so this is our idea.
Again, we were talking about...
it being wired together.
And I think hopefully everyonepicks up on the play on words
that are at play there.
A lot of wires in thisbusiness, from computer repair.
(24:35):
Of course, web design is a bigthing we'll talk about.
But since we've gone full time.
Wired and
Melanie (24:42):
unwired.
Jason (24:42):
Wired and unwired.
And wired from coffee.
So it's many different layersthere.
Melanie (24:47):
Wired with coffee is
Jason (24:48):
how we run.
Then I could get into Java andJavaScript and all those bad
jokes.
But we're thankful that we'reable to do this.
And going full time has allowedus to be able to do the
(25:09):
computer repair and so forthhaving a storefront because
there's only so much you can doout of your home without having
a more of a public facing placethere are people there yeah
there are people there they areand it's
Melanie (25:24):
difficult to be out of the home
Jason (25:25):
sometimes it really is and you don't know what you're
going to face you don't knowwhat distraction is going to be
there because you know whenyou're working home and there
are a lot of people that do andthey do really well but um I
mean, even look at the industryof writers.
I mean, a writer isn't going torent a place to write.
They're going to write fromhome.
And they're often seen as, oh,well, you work for yourself.
(25:47):
You're at home.
You're always available for meto bug.
You're not doing anything.
You come on and do this for meor whatever.
So priorities and things getconstrued.
But yeah.
So we look forward to doingthis again shortly.
And for our...
random inaugural podcast hereyou go this is us certainly in
(26:08):
the raw we really just you knowhalf hour ago said let's hit
record and see what happens soyou are definitely getting the
authentic jason and melanie butover the course of this i hope
you get to know us a little moreand we would love to you know
make this something that is partof your day so he's signing off
(26:31):
from winter net web this wasjason winter
Melanie (26:33):
melanie winter
Jason (26:34):
Have a wonderful day.
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